George Jepsen, Connecticut's attorney general, is probing Google's unauthorized tracking of Android users, Quartz reports, citing a company spokesperson. Quartz previously said that Android phones have been collecting the addresses of nearby cell phone towers, and sending them back to parent company Google, even when disabled. Jepsen's spokesperson said that "I can confirm that Connecticut is looking into this, but we are unable to comment further at this time." Reference Link

Following a report that Cerner (CERN) and Amazon's (AMZN) AWS are in the final stages of partnership negotiations that would see Amazon provide cloud services for Cerner's population health product, HealtheIntent, Morgan Stanley analyst Ricky Goldwasser said a Cerner partnership could be the "Trojan horse" that helps Amazon build hospital relationships to compete against established GPOs and medical distributors. From Cerner's side, the partnership gives them a leg up in population health relative to competitors like Allscripts (MDRX) and athenahealth (ATHN), said Goldwasser, who wonders if this announcement will lead to other cloud /healthcare IT partnerships with the likes of Microsoft (MSFT) and Google (GOOGL).

11/15/17

BERN

11/15/17NO CHANGETarget $100BERNOutperform

Microsoft building for Cloud business larger than most expect, says Bernstein

Bernstein analyst Mark Moerdler notes that Microsoft (MSFT) has a much larger datacenter footprint compared to its peers such as AWS (AMZN) and Google (GOOG;GOOL). Looking at datacenter investment, the analyst thinks Microsoft is building for Cloud business larger than most expect, growth in Azure and Commercial Cloud should continue to remain strong, and given Microsoft Commercial cloud is already at AWS like GM, it should have even better GM as they fill into the built capacity. The analyst reiterates an Outperform rating and $100 price target on Microsoft's shares.

11/08/17

UBSW

11/08/17DOWNGRADETarget $7UBSWSell

Snap downgraded to Sell from Neutral at UBS

UBS analyst Eric Sheridan downgraded Snap (SNAP) to Sell and cut his price target for the shares to $7 from $12 following last night's Q3 results. The camera company is down 19%, or $2.88, to $12.24 in premarket trading. In a post-earnings research note titled "SNAP Crackle Flop," Sheridan says he finds it very likely that Snap will continue to struggle on "multiple fronts" in the coming 12 months. A redesigned app could bring opportunity but also platform disruption, Sheridan writes. He believes trying to scale its ad business amid "tepid" user growth while competing against Alphabet (GOOG), Facebook (FB) and Amazon.com (AMZN) is likely going to prove difficult for Snap.

10/31/17

ROTH

10/31/17NO CHANGETarget $41ROTHNeutral

Yelp price target raised to $41 from $35 at Roth Capital

Roth Capital analyst Darren Aftahi raised his price target for Yelp (YELP) to $41 from $35 ahead of quarterly results. Nonethless, the analyst says that while Yelp has divested of Eat24, he sees its go-forward business as remaining challenged by the likes of Facebook (FB), Google (GOOG; GOOGL), and now to a lesser extent, Snap (SNAP). He reiterates a Neutral rating on Yelp's shares.

Snap Inc. (SNAP) is banning ads of initial coin offerings in its Snapchat app, Cheddar reports, citing a company spokesperson. The decision makes Snapchat the latest social media platform to prohibit advertisements for cryptocurrency ICOs, the report says. In contrast to Facebook (FB) and Google (GOOG), however, Snap's current block of ICOs has been in effect since early February and does not apply to different kinds of cryptocurrency ads, the report says. Reference Link

Airbus (EADSY) is mulling making a freighter version of its slow-selling A330neo widebody, spurred by requests from potential customers Amazon (AMZN) and UPS (UPS), Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the matter. The interest from Amazon and UPS could incite a competition between Airbus and rival Boeing (BA) as the worldwide air-cargo market rebounds from a slump, the report notes.

Facebook's chief information security officer, Alex Stamos, will leave the company after internal disagreements over how the social network should deal with its role in spreading disinformation, The New York Times reports, citing current and former employees briefed on the matter. Reference Link

Amazon has considered the possibility of expanding its retail footprint by acquiring some stores from bankrupt Toys 'R' Us, Bloomberg reports, citing people with knowledge of the situation. The e-commerce giant is not interested in maintaining the Toys 'R' Us brand, but has mulled using the soon-to-be-vacant stores for its own purposes, the report says. Reference Link

President Trump is readying to place a package of $60B in annual tariffs against China, following through on a long-time threat that he claims will punish China for IP infringement and create more jobs in the U.S., the Washington Post reports. The tariff package, which the president intends to unveil by the end of the week, was confirmed by four senior administration officials, the report notes. Senior aides has presented Trump with a $30B tariff package that would apply to a variety of products, but the president directed them to approximately double the amount of new trade levies, the report says. The package could be applied to over 100 products, which the president contends were made by using trade secrets that the Chinese stole from U.S. companies or forced them to hand over in exchange for market aces, the report says. Reference Link